It's the fourth day on the stand for Sam Ruchlewicz, Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski's former campaign aide. Now he's up for his second cross-examination. Reporters Emily Opilo and Kayla Dwyer discuss what is revealed.

It's the fourth day on the stand for Sam Ruchlewicz, Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski's former campaign aide. Now he's up for his second cross-examination. Reporters Emily Opilo and Kayla Dwyer discuss what is revealed.

Peter Hall and Emily OpiloOf The Morning Call

With the government’s main witness on the stand, Scott Allinson’s attorney set out to establish two things: Allinson never paid the bribe Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski’s campaign aide demanded, and he never got the additional city business he allegedly sought.

During a methodical cross-examination over several hours Wednesday, Allinson’s lawyer, William Winning, elicited admissions from Sam Ruchlewicz that Allison gave Pawlowski’s campaign fund only $250 in 2015, a tenth of what he promised.

Reviewing dozens of clandestine recordings and transcripts, Winning also extracted Ruchlewicz’s repeated acknowledgment that the city work he promised Allinson never materialized.

In the transcript of one recording, Ruchlewicz discussed the ouster of another attorney as solicitor for the Allentown Parking Authority to “punish [the attorney] and give Scotty a bone.”

PHOTO GALLERY: Scenes from the federal courthouse in Allentown after Mayor Ed Pawlowski was found guilty on most of the charges in his federal pay-to-play trial Thursday, March 1, 2018.

“Did you or anyone else give Scotty a bone?” Winning asked.

“I have no authority to give him a bone,” Ruchlewicz replied.

“Did he ever receive legal work?” Winning asked.

“Not that I’m aware of,” Ruchlewicz said.

In the transcript, Ruchlewicz quickly segued into a request for a contribution to a Pawlowski holiday party.

“It’s you. You’re connecting some appointment to the parking authority that never happens to this request for money,” Winning told the witness.

Allinson had agreed to contribute $2,500, according to the transcript.

“I know he said it. Did he ever do that?” Winning asked.

“Not to my knowledge.” Ruchlewicz replied.

Later in the day, Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Wzorek established that members of Allinson’s firm, Norris McLaughlin & Marcus, contributed almost $20,000 to Pawlowski’s Senate bid. The prosecutor also noted that a change in the city’s relationship with the firm coincided with the FBI’s July 2, 2015, raid of City Hall.

Ruchlewicz was on the witness stand for a fourth day Wednesday in Pawlowski and Allinson’s corruption trial in federal court in Allentown. Pawlowski faces 54 counts including conspiracy, bribery, fraud and making false statements to the FBI. Allinson faces two counts of conspiracy and bribery. Both have pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors allege Pawlowski traded city contracts and favors in City Hall for campaign contributions. The charges involving Allinson center on requests by Ruchlewicz and his boss, campaign manager Mike Fleck, for donations as Pawlowski contemplated a run for U.S. Senate in 2015.

Painting Ruchlewicz as a once-close associate of Allinson who turned when confronted by the FBI with evidence of his own crimes, Winning said Ruchlewicz invited Allinson to his wedding even as he made covert recordings of him. Ruchlewicz called him “Scotty” and told the lawyer he loved him, Winning noted.

“You were not being his friend at all. You were cooperating with the government, weren’t you?” Winning asked. Ruchlewicz agreed.

“You were getting him to say things that could be used in this courtroom, weren’t you?” Winning asked.

“I didn’t make Mr. Allinson say any word on that tape. Mr. Allinson used language. Mr. Allinson was the one who connected things,” Ruchlewicz said.

Winning also suggested Ruchlewicz and Fleck plied the attorney with alcohol to lower his inhibitions. Ruchlewicz testified he was often drinking when they met.

“I do remember that at most social events where I ran into him he would be drinking, usually red wine,” he said.

As Ruchlewicz and Fleck entered a February 2015 meeting with Allinson at an Allentown-area restaurant, Ruchlewicz quipped, “Maybe he’s more generous when he’s drunk.” Winning asked if Ruchlewicz had ever seen him drunk.

“I did see him several times when he was intoxicated, yes,” Ruchlewicz said, adding that Allinson didn’t appear drunk for that meeting.

Days earlier, in a secretly recorded discussion about Allinson’s reluctance to make campaign contributions, Pawlowski asked Ruchlewicz and Fleck if they were going to “light up” Allinson.

“I’m going to pound the s--- out of him,” Fleck said.

Earlier Wednesday, Pawlowski’s lawyer worked to damage Ruchlewicz’s credibility by questioning his statements in clandestine recordings about instructions he received from members of the mayor’s staff.

In a 2015 recording, Ruchlewicz told Allinson then city solicitor Susan Wild had been “informed of the way of the world,” and that any work she assigned to Allinson’s firm would go through Allinson.

Questioned by defense attorney Jack McMahon about the source of the information, Ruchlewicz testified former city Managing Director Francis Dougherty had told him to talk to Wild. McMahon then turned to a tactic he employed throughout Ruchlewicz’s cross examination, pointing out that Ruchlewicz testified earlier that he wore a wire every day for more than a year. He asked whether Ruchlewicz had made a recording of the conversation.

Questioned Wednesday about the exchange, Ruchlewicz said he was joking.

“And his [Fleck’s] response was to extend that back into the ’90s?” McMahon asked.

“That’s what he said,” Ruchlewicz replied.

In a recorded phone call with Fleck, Ruchlewicz said he was running late for a meeting in Harrisburg and said he would lie about running into traffic.

“How about you try the truth?” Fleck asked.

Ruchlewicz responded “It doesn’t really get me far.”

McMahon also used the recordings to portray Pawlowski as adamantly opposed to engaging in pay-to-play politics.

In a January 2015 tape played by McMahon, Ruchlewicz read Pawlowski news about former Pennsylvania Treasurer Rob McCord being charged and pleading guilty to extortion.

Pawlowski responded, "That’s absurd. Why would you ever say that? I'd never even insinuate that stuff to someone. Maybe get mad and say it to you, but never say it to Scott Allinson or somebody."

In another recording, Fleck described business consultant Jim Hickey’s being upset about the city’s inability to give Hickey’s client work on the PPL Center project. Pawlowski said he made phone calls, but was uncomfortable doing so.

“I was starting to cross the line there, and I said ‘I’m not crossing the line,’ ” the mayor said in the recording.

At the end of the day, Ruchlewicz also explained to jurors why he turned on his boss and the mayor.

“At some point I went from being an innocent bystander in all this to a part of the problem,” he said before he was interrupted by an objection.

Sanchez allowed him to continue.

“I had continued and participated … on advice and rationalization provided by Mr. Fleck and Mr. Hickey, and that was wrong,” Ruchlewicz said. “Cooperating with them [the FBI] gave me a chance to be part of the solution.

“When you’re presented with an option like that, you see right and wrong and you do what’s right,” he said. “I did it because it was the right thing to do even though at no point was I promised anything.”

Ruchlewicz has not been charged.

The trial on Wednesday

Allentown attorney Scott Allinson's lawyer cross examined Mayor Ed Pawlowski's former campaign aide, Sam Ruchlewicz, about his requests for campaign contributions and whether Allinson received additional work from the city, as he allegedly demanded.

Who testified?

Sam Ruchlewicz, former Pawlowski campaign aide

Who will testify Thursday?

Ruchlewicz will conclude his testimony; Celeste Dee, an employee of Pawlowski's campaign manager